Free Republic

When the Trump administration gave a well-connected Republican donor seed money to test a possible COVID-19-fighting blood plasma technology, it noted the company's “manufacturing facilities” in Charleston, South Carolina. Plasma Technologies LLC is indeed based in the stately waterfront city. But there are no manufacturing facilities. Instead, the company exists within the luxury condo of its majority owner, Eugene Zurlo. Zurlo's company may be in line for as much as $65 million in taxpayer dollars; enough to start building an actual production plant, according to internal government records and other documents obtained by The Associated Press. The story of how...

The Democratic challenger for the closely fought South Carolina senate seat, Jaime Harrison, has said voters in his state will punish the Republican incumbent Lindsey Graham at the ballot box for his reversal on pledges—such as the one he made not to back a Supreme Court candidate during election year.

A federal judge in South Carolina ruled Tuesday that local election authorities cannot discard absentee ballots whose signatures do not match those on file. U.S. District Judge Richard Mark Gergel, an appointee of President Barack Obama, said that the signature authorization procedures being used by local authorities were “subjective.”

NEW AD: - Votes with Nancy Pelosi 90% of the time - Put Parris Island on the chopping block - Will help pass the largest tax increase in history Democrat Joe Cunningham is TOO liberal for the Lowcountry — not to worry, there is a better choice... Video...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who is battling for his Senate career in a toss-up re-election race, on Sunday brushed off a sharp attack from Fox Business host Lou Dobbs, telling reporters, “I don’t really worry much about Mr. Dobbs.” Graham, when asked whether he wanted President Trump to stand up for him against attacks from the right, said Dobbs “has a right to his own opinion” but “people at home get the big picture.” “I think people in South Carolina understand why it’s important for me to get re-elected,” Graham said. Dobbs on Friday expressed incredulity over why conservatives are...

The race for the South Carolina first congressional district is far more competitive than Democrats would have you believe. In fact, according to new polling released on Monday morning by Republican challenger Nancy Mace – she has taken the lead in her battle to unseat first-term Democrat Joe Cunningham. According to a Monday morning news release from Mace’s campaign, the second-term state representative from Daniel Island, S.C. is drawing the support of 47 percent of likely first district voters in her bid to reclaim this Lowcountry coastal district – which was held by the GOP for nearly four decades prior...

“I don’t know why anyone in the great state of South Carolina would ever vote for Lindsey Graham.” That’s Lou Dobbs going off on Graham — and not for the reason you might think. Video : https://mobile.twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1319777224871022592

Fox Business host Lou Dobbs sent a message to South Carolinians on Friday: Feel free to vote Sen. Lindsey Graham out of office in November. Dobbs, a veteran TV host and staunch supporter of President Trump, criticized the South Carolina Republican over his decision not to subpoena the CEOs of Facebook and Twitter after concerns were raised about potential liberal bias in their fact-checking and social media monitoring of news articles and comments. Graham had announced that the Senate Judiciary Committee, which he chairs, was close to getting a voluntary appearance by the heads of the companies, and he would...

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) – With the final Presidential debate before Election Day on Thursday, South Carolina has already seen record numbers of absentee ballots already cast, especially in Horry County. A pandemic, a Presidential election and a toss-up U.S. Senate race between Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democratic candidate Jamie Harrison are the recipe for shattering 2016’s early vote records in the Palmetto State. “We’re probably, right now, on pace easily to double that,” said Drew Kurlowski, who’s an assistant professor of political science at Coastal Carolina University. “We might see upwards of actually a million early absentee or...

The county has already seen 46,000 absentee voters for the November election, compared to only 20,000 in 2016. LEXINGTON, S.C. — The Lexington County Registration and Elections Office has seen a record number of absentee voters for the November 2020 election. Many people are choosing to vote absentee this year, including voting by mail and in-person. Lexington County has seen a significant amount of absentee voters. "It's really busy, everyday gets busier and busier," said Mary Brack, the Director of the Lexington Registration and Elections for Lexington County. "But the line is moving very quickly." On Wednesday, the line...

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has seen a tsunami of Democratic small-dollar donations flood the South Carolina Senate race, says the sources of the massive amounts of money flowing through ActBlue and other groups need to be reviewed by policymakers. Graham says that Congress has little idea who’s behind the huge inflows of money that have given his opponent, Jaime Harrison, and other Democratic challengers a major fundraising advantage over GOP incumbents in the final weeks of the campaign. “Where’s all this money coming from ActBlue coming from? How easy would it be to just have a...

A scam artist got away with $122 from a Fort Mill ice cream shop after threatening to lie about them to the media, according to a police report. The manager of Cold Stone Creamery in Kingsley Town Center said a black female came into the shop on Oct. 1 while a young employee was working. “(She) stated that she had an issue with the way she was treated during a previous visit to the business,” a police report says. “She wanted a full refund for the items that she purchased, totally $122.72.” The suspect would not let the employee contact...

GEORGETOWN COUNTY, S.C. (WMBF) – The chairman of the Georgetown County Board of Voter Registration and Elections resigned Wednesday night after being accused of damaging political signs. The South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division confirmed it is investigating allegations that Dean L. Smith and his wife took and vandalized political signs. An incident report from the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office states a member of the Georgetown County Republican Party and a member of the Seventh Congressional District spoke to a resident of Safe Harbor Drive in Pawleys Island about getting some Trump/Pence signs to put in his yard. The resident...

When coronavirus cases began surging across the South this summer, the region seemed destined for the same economic setback the Northeast suffered during the spring. But by the end of summer, the South’s economy remained largely unscathed from the wave of infections. Its unemployment rate had fallen to 6.9%, the lowest of any region in August. The number of people employed was 6% lower in August than in February, before most of the country locked down, compared with declines of 10.6% in the Northeast, 8.2% in the West and 7% in the Midwest. Consumers continued to spend at relatively high...

PAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C. (WBTW) — The Chairman of the Georgetown County Board of Elections who is under investigation for stealing and damaging campaign signs resigned Wednesday. Members of the Georgetown County Republican Party and the 7th Congressional GOP said they met with a man who wanted Trump campaign signs put in his yard, according to the incident report. When the signs kept disappearing, the man put a deer camera in his yard and captured Rita Granito Smith, the wife of Georgetown County Board of Elections Chairman Dean Lyle Smith, taking one of the signs and writing “Dump” on another, deputies...

2016 Total Early Vote: 490,144 Whites: 321,837 (65.7%) Blacks: 160,626 (32.8%) All Ballots cast in 2016: 2,103,027 2020 Total Early Vote (Ballots cast + Applications Issued): 767,250 Whites: 516,287 (67.3%) Blacks: 226,297 (29.5%) All Ballots cast in 2020: ?

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — In a state known for its political shenanigans, the Senate race in South Carolina is living up to that reputation as campaigning between U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison enters its closing days. This week, Harrison has been mounting a campaign to cleave voters from Graham and steer them toward a third, more conservative candidate, although that candidate is no longer actively running. The tactic could appeal to South Carolina voters who voted Graham in but have at times critiqued him as not conservative enough for the state

The massive haul outstrips any previous Senate candidate's fundraising records during a three-month timeframe, Harrison's campaign said, according to the Associated Press. The amount dwarfs the reported $38 million Democratic candidate Beto O'Rourke took in during the third-quarter of 2018, a campaign in which he did not unseat Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.

Sen. Lindsey Graham said on Friday night young people of color are safe in South Carolina — but only if they are not liberal. "I care about everybody," Graham said, speaking at a forum for South Carolina Senate candidates. "If you're a young African American, an immigrant, you can go anywhere in this state. You just need to be conservative, not liberal."

COLUMBIA — Democratic candidate Jaime Harrison is threatening to withdraw from South Carolina’s second U.S. Senate race debate Friday night against Republican incumbent Lindsey Graham after the senator rejected a demand that he take another coronavirus test. In a statement Thursday evening, Harrison said that he and the moderators for Friday's debate hosted by television station WSPA in Spartanburg had agreed to take a COVID-19 test before the debate, and he called on Graham to do the same. "Of course, the upcoming debates can be held, and held safely," Harrison said. "But if Sen. Graham will not take a coronavirus...